A Pitcher-Perfect Podiatry Appointment

What do a visit to my podiatrist, photography, and Blue Jays baseball pitchers have in common?

I love to visit my podiatrist. Following treatment my feet feel cushioned by angels. Walking becomes pleasurable again. I love walking into the waiting area of Gerber and Associates in Kelowna for a lively visit with a Toronto Blue Jays loving receptionist. We are smiling these days as the Jays have made the playoffs and won the AL East division. They rest now for several days until the American League series which starts on Saturday. Go Jays.

Once in the treatment area I noticed new photographs on the wall, autumn landscapes from a year ago in Kelowna’s Myra Canyon, creations of Dr. Randy who is a keen amateur photographer. What could be better; an essential medical procedure well managed; Blue Jays banter at the front counter, and grand photography and conversation in the patient area. I can’t wait till my next appointment.

Who knew that baseball and photography belong together, that is until I discovered the article below which unites the two beautifully. As the Jays rest this week prior to the post-season contest ahead, enjoy the pitcher-perfect pastime described below.

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Blue Jays photography club makes for pitcher-perfect pastime

Arden Zwelling on Sportsnet.ca — September 22, 2025 – 11:09am

TAMPA, Fla. — Kevin Gausman’s wife, Taylor, is a lifestyle photographer. She takes family photos for the couple’s friends, relatives. She knows exactly what she’s doing with a camera in her hands.

Her husband, not so much. He decided to pick up the hobby on a whim during MLB’s 2020 pandemic season when he was wandering around San Francisco’s Chinatown, walked into an old photography shop, and walked out with a Minolta X-700 — a 35mm, single-lens film camera. Gausman’s devotion to the craft has fluctuated since. His procurement of expensive equipment hasn’t.

“Oh, she thinks I’m terrible,” Gausman says. “It’s funny because I’ll buy a new camera and she’s like, ‘You don’t even know what you’re doing with the camera you already have!’ She’s a fan of me getting into it because it’s something that we can do together. But she’s also like, ‘You don’t know anything.’”

Yet Gausman knows more than he did before the 2024 season, when Bowden Francis joined the Blue Jays rotation and a casual photography club formed organically within Toronto’s clubhouse.

Fellow starter Chris Bassitt’s an avid photographer himself; so, too, is assistant athletic trainer Voon Chong. A group chat was quickly set up. And before long, everyone began bringing their cameras on road trips and setting out on regular expeditions to capture different parts of the various cities the team visits throughout the season.

“We all have different styles, it’s kind of cool. Me and Voon are more into street photography. Bass is more landscape and animals. And then Gaus is a little bit of everything,” Francis says. “Depending on where we’re going, we’ll go check out different parts of the city. Or see if maybe there’s a cool waterfall or something naturey nearby for us to do in the morning before we go to the field.

“Some places are more outdoorsy, some have really cultured areas. Toronto’s a great place to shoot. I thought Milwaukee was really underrated and cool. It’s pretty artsy. A lot of character. Old-school. That was fun. I really liked walking around there.”

Like Gausman, Francis grew fascinated with the hobby during the pandemic, searching for ways to kill time. He messed around with disposable cameras when he was a kid and had a basic digital camera in high school. But now Francis carries his Sony A1 with him on the road wherever he goes.

A frequent pastime for Francis when the Blue Jays have been in dense urban area such as Chicago or New York is to wander off from the team hotel early in the morning and see what he can find down an alleyway or two. In Toronto, he’s particularly fond of Kensington Market and Trinity-Bellwoods Park. He spent the better part of a day in San Francisco’s Japantown last season shooting a sprawling botanical garden and tea house at Golden Gate Park.

Chong, Francis and Gausman — thoughtful, relaxed personalities — all like to mess around with film photography. Gausman enjoys his Voigtlander and Leica M6 — manual cameras that require the photographer to be more mindful of focus, exposure and composition. Francis appreciates the craft of slowing down and paying attention to the finer details of each scene, waiting patiently for the perfect balance and light.

“It takes you back. There’s a little more art to it,” Francis says. “I want to make a scrapbook of my son and my daughter. Because that’s what I have from when I was growing up. I feel like in 15-20 years, there will be no more scrapbooks of kid photos. It’s all on your phone or a digital picture frame in the kitchen. But having something physical is cool.”

Meanwhile, Bassitt’s collection is full of landscapes, wild animals, macro-zoomed close-ups of bugs. As a kid, Bassitt fell in love with the natural world while volunteering with his grandfather at various state parks. He became obsessed with National Geographic and Animal Planet. During the off-season, you’ll find him — or not, he’d prefer — in rural North Carolina maintaining his farm.

“Baseball sends you around the country, if not the world. And you get to see cool, different things,” Bassitt says. “So, I’m always trying to get out of the city and the busy life. There’s definitely a therapeutic part to it, going out in nature and not having to talk to anybody. Just go be quiet and listen.”

Although he’s not as nerdy about hardware as Francis and Gausman — Bassitt relies solely on his Sony A1 and an array of lenses — the ever-adaptable starter is the most prolific of the three. The camera doesn’t even need to be his.

Every so often during the season, the Blue Jays senior manager of social media and real-time content, Alykhan Khamisa Ravjiani, will put his camera down in the Blue Jays dugout and discover a fresh reel of photos he didn’t take when he picks it back up.

Of course, the hobby’s biggest appeal for the right-hander is as an escape from a hectic life consumed by baseball. In a demanding, daily sport that can stretch nine months from spring training through the post-season, those opportunities are precious and fleeting.

During the 2024 all-star break, Bassitt and Francis drove two-and-a-half hours north of Toronto to a rented Muskoka cottage so they could go to the Torrance Barrens Dark-Sky Preserve in the middle of the night and photograph starscapes.

“I like nighttime photography more than anything,” Bassitt says. “I’m not trying to go straight Aaron Rodgers or anything. But the darkness of it is cool. I like it. You don’t realize how small you are until you see a billion stars in the sky.”

After Francis hit the IL with a shoulder issue in June and left the team for Florida to rehab, the photography club has been less lively this season compared to last. But a recent series in Tampa allowed the trio to share a clubhouse again, and as Bassitt was discussing the utility of various lenses at his locker one day, Francis wandered over to inquire when they’d be heading back out on a favourite trail to take some fresh shots.

“It probably looks a little strange, these three big guys walking around with cameras,” Gausman says. “It’s fun to see the pictures that each of us take. Especially Bowden and Voon — they’re really good photographers. They’re definitely on a whole other level than me and Bass. And it’s pretty apparent.

“I still don’t really know what I’m doing. But eventually, whenever I’m done playing, I’ll get more into it. I think I’ll be that guy on a mountain with a tripod sitting there waiting for the perfect lighting for one picture of a group of mountains or something.”

To see player images go here.

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